Also known as: undue burdens · undue burden standard
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A showing of excessive cost or difficulty that excuses a party from producing electronically stored information or complying with a subpoena. The responding party must demonstrate inaccessibility due to burden or cost on a motion to compel or for protective order. The court may still order production for good cause or impose conditions to mitigate the burden.
NimbusSoft sues CodeSphere for patent infringement and moves to compel restoration of ten years of deleted server logs stored on obsolete media. CodeSphere submits affidavits showing specialized vendors and millions in restoration costs. The court denies the motion after CodeSphere demonstrates the data is not reasonably accessible due to undue burden.
MetroLink sues TitanFiber and requests years of network logs from all data centers. TitanFiber moves for a protective order citing extreme cost and that a narrower sample suffices. The court grants the motion in part and limits production to relevant and proportional data.
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A plaintiff serves a subpoena on a nonparty doctor for broad device records spanning multiple years. The doctor moves to quash because the requests require disclosure of confidential information and impose far-reaching obligations. The court quashes the subpoena on grounds of undue burden.
A state prosecutor issues a subpoena for a sitting President's personal financial records. The President moves to quash arguing the demand creates undue burden and interferes with official duties. The court denies categorical immunity but permits the standard undue burden challenge under state law.
A party serves a subpoena seeking extensive electronically stored information from a nonparty corporation. The corporation moves for a protective order showing the sources are not reasonably accessible due to undue burden or cost. The court may still order production upon a showing of good cause.
A litigant serves a subpoena on a nonparty requiring production of voluminous records. The nonparty moves to quash on the ground that compliance would subject it to undue burden. The court must quash or modify the subpoena if the showing is made.
A party need not produce electronically stored information from sources identified as not reasonably accessible because of undue burden or cost. The responding party must show inaccessibility on a motion to compel. The court may still order production if the requesting party shows good cause.
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The movant must certify a good faith effort to resolve the dispute without court action. The court may issue an order protecting a party from undue burden or expense for good cause shown.
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A court must quash or modify a subpoena that subjects a person to undue burden. The rule protects nonparties from excessive or far reaching demands that require disclosure of confidential information.
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…of our dormant Commerce Clause jurisprudence has been the principle that the States may not impose regulations that place an undue burden on interstate commerce, even where those regulations do not discriminate between in-state and out-of-state businesses. See Brown-Forman Distillers Corp. v. New York State Liquor…